Sadie Woods

11/12/2023

Écoute, mes amis 👂 👂 👂

The album is finally here and we are hosting a listening party this Friday at Retreat. Come meet the artists and producers to learn about the concept development, production and collaborative efforts behind Gimme Shelter Mixtape. This would be your chance to get a record with autographs of this limited edition pressing.

Gimme Shelter Mixtape takes inspiration from the 1969 hit by Rolling Stones, capturing the then socio-political climate of uprisings in the 60’s amidst the Vietnam War. Similarly, this mixtape was created in response to contemporary social conditions. This project showcases some of Chicago’s emerging, midcareer and established musical talent through narrative storytelling in hip hop and classical music featuring original compositions and production by djs and producers.

Featuring DJ Aced Spade, Draii Blac, Marko Stat$, Nasa, Young Conscious, guest artist Roy Kinsey, producer Mike Jones, and Chicago Sinfonietta orchestra members Karla Galva, Seth Pae and Edith Yokley and more.

Co-Directors: Sadie Woods, Matt Woods�Engineer: Lisa Lust�Mastering: Carl Saff�Artwork: Terence Dredske88 Byas
�Executive Producers: Chicago Sinfonietta, Urban Gateways, Black Madonna Press, The Vinyl Factory

I personally would like to thank Theaster Gates, the Rebuild Foundation team and The Vinyl Factory for believing in this project and working with us over the past three years to see this project through.

Chicago, can’t wait to share this project with you and celebrate in community.

Allez-y!

À bientôt,
Sadie

17/11/2023

Looking forward to Art Basel this year. I will be participating in their Conversations program alongside leadership in the Floridian artist residencies community.
——-
Conversations | Artist-Led Residencies: Seedbeds for Exchange in Florida

Featuring (L to R):
Cathy Leff, Executive Director, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami

Lorie Mertes, Executive Director, Locust Projects, Miami

Sadie Woods, Curatorial and Residency Director, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida

Esther Park, Vice President of Programming, Oolite Arts, Miami Beach

Moderator: Julia Halperin, Journalist and co-founder of the Burns Halperin Report

Sat, Dec 9, 2023
Art Basel
1901 Convention Center Drive
Miami Beach
3-4 PM

23/10/2023

Spending my birthday this year in Jakarta, Indonesia for the National Culture Week presented by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. Throughout the week, there will be exhibitions, programming and festival activities. Wednesday, I will be featured on the panel, curated by Philippe Pirotte, discussing work in conversation with the historical Afro-Asian Conference of 1955 promoting political, economic and cultural cooperation, and opposing (neo)colonialism. Thankful to have a platform to present this work among artists and cultural workers internationally during these times. This is forty-fine, this is the life work. Happy birthday to me 🥂

21/10/2023

Today’s the day! Note, we have a venue change. Moving the party to the bank!

Afrodjia Social Club
Sadie Woods & Friends
Featuring:
Edith Yokley, Violin
JoYful SoundZ, Percussion
Roy Kinsey, Lyricist
Dohn Conley, Artist

Stoney Island Arts Bank
6760 S Stoney Island Ave
4 PM Start

See you dancing
XO

20/10/2023

It’s my birthday weekend, we celebrating 🥳

Afrodjia Social Club this Saturday at Kenwood Gardens. I am looking forward to performing with Edith Yokley on violin and Joy on percussion. Featuring special performances from lyricist Roy Kinsey and artist Dohn Conley.

Kenwood Gardens
6929 S Kenwood Ave
4 PM start

RSVP 🔗in bio

15/09/2023

Save the date!
October 21 CHI

Afrodjia Social Club is coming to Kenwood Gardens. More details to come.

RSVP 🔗 in bio

21/08/2023

Residency open call alert 🚨 ‼️

It’s official. This past June was my one year anniversary as Curatorial & Residency Director here at Atlantic Center for the Arts and I am pleased to share our current open calls. This three week residency program model is process-based and mentor-led in literary, performing and visual arts, so you can work with distinguished artists with no expectation for outcomes. You’ll spend your time working out existing projects, experimenting on new concepts, participate in studio visits and critiques, and focusing on your studio practice. There is no residency fee, and room and board, and studio space is provided. Please feel free to share and apply. More information can be found at https://atlanticcenterforthearts.org/residencies/mair-schedule/

Current open applications include:
Deadline 9/7/2023 | Residency 10/8-10/28/2023
avery r. young - Interdisciplinary Artist, Educator, Artivist

Deadline 9/7/2023 | Residency 2/11-3/2/2024
Sharon Bridgforth - Performing Artist, Writer
Renee Cox - Photographer, Lecturer, Political Activist, Curator

Deadline 12/3/2023 | Residency 5/12-6/1/2024
Sonja Henderson - Sculptor, Visual Artist
Crystal Wilkinson - Poet, Writer

Deadline 1/14/2024 | 6/23-7/13/2024
Angela Dufresne - Painter
Kahil El'Zabar - Composer, Musician, Interdisciplinary Artist, Activist
Okwui Okpokwasili - Performance Maker

Deadline 5/5/2024 | 10/6-10/26/2024
Andy C - Composer Musician, DJ, Producer
Bob Faust - Visual Artist, Designer

cc: Atlantic Center for the Arts

20/08/2023

Felicidades to curator and all that artists featured entre horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico. As a Chicagoan from Humboldt Park, seeing this exhibition is very inspiring to me not only because much of the history examined here was shared my parents shared with me growing up, but I got to share this work with my mother who also grew up in that community and got to see her own history represented. Thank you for spending the day with us.

entre horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico runs through May 5, 2025 at the Museumof Contemporary Art Chicago.

03/08/2023

Throw back to 2022 at Millennium Park Roy Kinsey and the band. We back at it again next Thursday eve at Dorian’s. You’re invited. Come bend on us ✌🏽

30/07/2023

Let me tell y’all something. Accolades is cool, but there is something special about the way your family sees you in the world, and the way an auntie sees their niece. Sometimes in life, you get to do the things that need to be done for the people that need it to be done and say the things you need to say to the people that need to hear it most. That can’t be replaced and that is what matters. It’s not lost on me that even tho I did not get to see her often, she always rooted for me and was proud of the work I made. As an artist, I make work my folks can identify with and include them am much as I can as a form of cultural preservation. All my life, I’ve been told we favor and she was a force. I will forever carry her spirit with me. Rest well, Auntie Shirley ❤️🕊️

21/06/2023

It’s summer solstice and we celebrating with music, holistic practioners, nature trails, and vegan food. Featured vendors include Luxury Wellness Spa Retreat, Oh So Medicinal, Space Cake Natural Style Care and symphonic music performance by Chicago Sinfonietta orchestra member Edith Yokley and guest percussionist Joy. Catering by B’Gabs Vegan Scratch Kitchen. 
 
This program is sponsored in part by the Walder Foundation. 

Wednesday, June 21 
Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center
9800 Willow Springs Rd, Willow Springs, IL, 60480
4-6 PM

Happy Solstice 🌞

15/03/2023

Since stepping into my role as the Curatorial & Residency Director at Atlantic Center for the Arts, I’ve had the opportunity to really dig into the history and legacy of the organization. Many greats have graced the program over the years in all disciplines of literary, performing and visual arts. As a post disciplinary artist, it is a dream to be in an environment with such rich history, and to be able to design programming while celebrating living artists. These are some highlights from the most recent residency and exhibition programming. Looking forward to what’s to come.

02/03/2023

As my MIXTAPE: The DJ as Tastemaker and Aesthetics in Cultural Mobalization exhibition comes to a close, I am sharing some contextualize select featured works.

Through a series of mixtapes, I treat music, sonic ephemera, and media archives as historical doctrines to recreate events and recontextualize narratives of popular history from peripheral perspectives. The mixtape as an American art form also pulls influences from hip hop to house dj aesthetics through sampling, conscious storytelling and party as a form of protest.

It Was A Rebellion questions the legitimacy of the word riot in response to social conditions;

The People’s Radio explores the subversion of radio technology as political welfare using public radio as a platform for black expressive culture and change;

Party As Protest highlights local Chicago music talent who have utilized music as a form of social mobilization.

I am thankful to have the opportunity to exhibit a show specific to dj culture, which has been a part of my arts practice for over 20 years and often not seen as a fine art form. But we all know there can be no denial to what djs have contributed to the culture.

MIXTAPE: The DJ as Tastemaker and Aesthetics in Cultural Mobalization closes today at:
St Mary College
Moreau Center for the Arts
18 St Mary S College
South Bend, IN 46624, USA

24/02/2023

Sharing recent mixtape installation ‘Catch These Ancestral Hands’ in group exhibition ‘How to Build a Queendom.’ If you’re in Chicago tonight, come slide.

Blanc Gallery and FINDING IJEOMA are pleased to announce, 'How to Build a Queendom' opening Friday, February 24th from 6-9PM at Blanc Gallery. This group exhibition invites participating artists to present recent and new works that exemplify shared practices fundamental to Black womens’ creativity. Through a series of visual artworks, sound, literature, and activations, the exhibition probes the following questions:

what are the attributes of a queendom?
who lives in a queendom?
how does society benefit from queendoms?
what are the conditions needed to sustain a queendom?
how do women artists come together to keep creativity, community, and the right to dream sacred?

In this public experience— part dream, part forum, part exhibition, How to Build a Queendom seeks to address principal values and aesthetics held amongst Black women artists in order to establish a new vision driven by love, legacy, and longevity.

Curated by Alexandria Eregbu
Photo credit: JD 'Okhai Ojeihere

23/01/2023

MIXTAPE: The DJ as Tastemaker & Aesthetics in Cultural Mobilization Exhibition Opening 1/26/23 - https://mailchi.mp/733882318a58/mixtape-the-dj-as-tastemaker-aesthetics-in-cultural-mobilization-exhibition-opening-12623

09/11/2022

As Curator of Community and Public Programs at Chicago Sinfonietta and an alum of the School of the Art Institute, it has been a pleasure working on this pop up series in the Lawndale neighborhood and bringing together these folks highlighting their work locally. This expo features Chicago-based wellness practitioners providing opportunities to experience Chicago Sinfonietta Performance by violinist Edith Yokley, guided meditation with Very Human Social by Candis Oakley, Luxury Wellness Spa Retreat chair massage by Therapist Qiana Frazier, Oh So Medicinal Herbs and Tinctures by Rita J, Space Cake Boutique hair care by Stylist Isa Starr, Vegan Catering by B’Gabs Vegan Kitchen.

Chicago Sinfonietta and SAIC at Homan Square Present Back to Basics: WELLNESS EXPO.

Homan Square Nichols Tower
906 S. Homan Ave., Floor 14

3:30 PM Doors
4:00 PM Very Human Social Guided Meditation with Instructor Candis Oakley
4:30-5:30 PM

Images
1. Edith Yokely is a violinist from Chicago and is a member of and Soulful Symphony in Baltimore.
2. Candis Oakley, E-RYT 200, a mindfulness leader, social good champion, and somatic fanatic.
3. is a health and wellness lifestyle brand featuring herbal teas, tinctures, botanicals, yoga, and more by Rita J.
4. pop-up will provide quick natural hair style tutorials, head wrap styling, cornrow quick tips, bead styling tutorial, and easy twist demos with CEO and stylist Isa Starr.
5. provides spa, wellness, and therapeutic services. Qiana Frazier will be performing chair massage services.
6. catering

Free w RSVP at
Space is limited

02/11/2022

Cat’s out the bag! 🐈‍⬛ 💼 Happy to share that I’ve been appointed as Curatorial & Residency Director at Atlantic Center for the Arts. I am expanding my arts programming and curatorial practice nationally and couldn’t be more happy to contribute to the legacy of this organization. I’m looking forward to new creative partnerships, and working with artists and art practitioners in this new capacity. Hope to see some familiar faces as well.

06/10/2022

Next Thursday, I’ll be sharing the release of Word is Bond as a featured artist project of the Social Justice Initiative Portal Project.

Word is Bond is a mixtape that explores United States citizenship and rights, sharing issues and perspectives on liberation, self determination and community health from the civil rights era to today. As a critical survey of the relationship between law and politics, Word is Bond conceptually and viscerally recontextualizes historical, political and social experiences of freedom fighters and public figures through sonic ephemera and music. The intersection of national identity and resistance movements become focal points to examine and differentiate varying principles that play a role in the organization and participation of civic life.

Join us for the listening party, featuring a special performance by trumpeter Corey Wilkes.

Thursday, October 13
Social Justice Initiative
1344 N Halsted
Doors 6:00 PM
Listening Party & Performance 7:00 PM

Free w RSVP. Space is limited.

24/09/2022

I will be exhibiting works “The People’s Radio” and “A Meditation on Civil Rights” in Toolbox @ Twenty: The Seldoms exhibition opening today at the Hyde Park Art Center.

The People’s Radio sound installation explores radio as a technology developed and pioneered by the U.S. military industrial complex as political warfare and public radio as a conduit for Black expressive culture and radical imagination. This installation is created from a variety of sources, including media, books, ephemeral objects, and a radio broadcast featuring cultural sounds, political speeches from the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and chairman Fred Hampton, and oral histories contextualized and propelled through Black music.

Programming for the exhibition features a premier of my work in progress “A Meditation on Civil Rights”, a sound piece for choreography movement performed by Damon Green pictured here.

A Meditation on Civil Rights rhythmically places excerpts of James Baldwin speeches from the in conversation with the song What I Want to See by The Last Poets. Baldwin discusses civil rights, slave codes, and rebellion in America to the lyrics of The Last Poets such as “no prisons, no locks, no keys, no killings....” speaking on identity and liberation from colonial mentality and oppressive systems.

Join us today at the Hyde Park Art Center for the exhibition opening from 1:00-4:00pm, with performances at 1:30 & 3:30 pm.
Curated by Carrie Hanson and Allison Peters Quinn. Exhibition runs through November 13.

16/09/2022

Soaking up the last bits of Summertime Chi with some Public programming. Looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.

Friday, September 16
Chicago Performs After Party
DJ Set w/ violinist Karla Galva

220 E. Chicago Ave, 2nd Floor Commons
8:30-11pm
Free + Open to the Public

Saturday, September 17
DJ Set
at
108 E Superior St
8:30pm-12:30am
Free + Bar Seating Available

Saturday, September 24
Toolbox @ Twenty: The Seldoms Exhibition Opening Reception
Featured Artists Jackie Kazarian, Edra Soto, Jacqueline Surdell, Sadie Woods

5020 S Cornell Ave
1:00-4:00pm; Performances at 1:30pm & 3:00pm
Free + Open to the Public


DJ Set
West Stage, Midway Plaisance Dr & S. Ellis Ave
9:15-10:30pm
Free + Open to the Public, Suggested $10 donation

09/09/2022

Chicago Sinfonietta‘s Community & Public Programs will be featured as a program of Rebuild Foundation’s Kenwood Garden Music Series tomorrow. If you’re in the hood, come slide.

This Saturday from 6pm-8pm, join us for a special evening at Kenwood Gardens, with the to celebrate the Black Classical Music tradition throughout history.

The Sinfonietta will take us on a journey through remarkable eras of classical music, highlighting the often-overlooked Black figures who made an impact on the art and practice of musical composition. This immersion aims to combat the engrained notion that "Black people did not and cannot write classical music." Together, we will honor Baroque composer and virtuoso Joseph Bologne Chevalier de St. George, Romantic composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor, and the first Black woman to have a major symphony orchestra perform one of her works Florence Price.

While recognizing these composers who paved the way for Black artists, we will highlight an important aspect of the American Black tradition: spirituals. These are often sorrowful songs, entwined with messages of strength, and hope for a better future.

Finally, the program includes other Black composers who've done their part to help define the Black American classical voice, including George Walker, William Grant-Still, Nathaniel Dett, Duke Ellington, and Jessie Montgomery.

The symphonic ensemble performance led by Freeman Fellow (Viola). Featuring (Conductor), Alex Giger (violin), Efuru Hawa Kilolo Harmon-Miller (Violin), (Keys), Lindsey Sharpe (Cello), (Violin).

These performances are free, open to the public and appropriate for all ages. Guests are encouraged to bring blankets and/or layers. Seating is first-come, first-serve.

Reserve your free tickets at the link in our bio.

08/09/2022

‪Pittsburgh Tonight::

Join us for the opening of Ricardo iamuuri Robinson's exhibition "Radio Gulf" opening reception from 6:00-8:00 PM, IG Live 6:30-7:30 PM EDT. Exhibition runs through January 29, 2023.‬

‪Radio Gulf is a sound installation by interdisciplinary sound artist Ricardo iamuuri Robinson. This new work of art amplifies a field of disconnections by dissecting the game of golf. It highlights elements of racism, classism, acculturation, gentrification, imperialism, militarism, economics, ecology, defensive architecture and the soundtrack of a people determined to achieve a status in a game they did not invent. A miniature fairway invites the gallery to listen and consider if this game is worth playing at all.‬

‪An ode to August Wilson’s final work of art: Radio Golf. Robinson plays with Wilson’s title to sound off the distance between what the game reveals and what the game conceals. 400 tees, 401 golf balls, 1 hole in the green, and an originally composed soundscape to accompany this artificial environment. The exhibition aims to provoke and inspire deep reflection and deep listening.‬

06/09/2022

‪This Thursday, we celebrate the opening of Ricardo iamuuri Robinson's exhibition "Radio Gulf" at the The August Wilson African American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh. Join us for the opening reception September 8 from 6:00-8:00 PM, IG Live 6:30-7:30 PM EDT. Exhibition runs through January 29, 2023.‬

‪Radio Gulf is a sound installation by interdisciplinary sound artist Ricardo iamuuri Robinson. This new work of art amplifies a field of disconnections by dissecting the game of golf. It highlights elements of racism, classism, acculturation, gentrification, imperialism, militarism, economics, ecology, defensive architecture and the soundtrack of a people determined to achieve a status in a game they did not invent. A miniature fairway invites the gallery to listen and consider if this game is worth playing at all.‬

‪An ode to August Wilson’s final work of art: Radio Golf. Robinson plays with Wilson’s title to sound off the distance between what the game reveals and what the game conceals. 400 tees, 401 golf balls, 1 hole in the green, and an originally composed soundscape to accompany this artificial environment. The exhibition aims to provoke and inspire deep reflection and deep listening.‬

13/08/2022

Spinning a set in the Vocalo Shhh! Silent Lounge at the Black Women’s Expo today from 12:00-1:30 PM. See you out!

05/08/2022

Celebrating all things carnivalesque with this month’s radio sets. Tune in!

Gridlock Sound Lab - Host, DJ
Fridays, August 5 & 19
105.5 FM (CHI)
4:00-6:00 PM CT

Saturdays, August 13 & 27
90.7 FM (Acra, NY)

&

Friday Night DJ Series w/ Host - DJ
Friday, August 12
91.1 FM (CHI), 89.5 FM (NWI)

28/07/2022

:: This weekend in Pittsburgh ::

FRIDAY, JULY 29
A Screen Printing Workshop

Artists Image Resource
518 Foreland St
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
5:00-8:00 PM

Artists Image Resource, August Wilson African American Cultural Center and Boom Concepts present A Screen Printing Workshop.
Guests will participate in an interactive printing process using designed images created by Robert Hodge, Bekezela Mguni and Quaishawn Whitlock to screen print artworks. Each participant will have the opportunity to engage each artist in their artmaking practice while being introduced to various studio methods and creating their own prints to take home.

Free While Supplies Last. No RSVP Required.

SATURDAY, JULY 30
Artist Talks

August Wilson African American Cultural Center
980 Liberty Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

1:00-2:00 PM - A Way To ARAM w Alisha B. Wormsley
2:15-3:15 PM - Select Works on Paper w Robert Hodge

Free. No RSVP Required.

27/07/2022

Sharing It Was A Rebellion Mixtape, a sonic exploration that challenges the notion of riot, for SONIC COLLIDE-O-SCOPE, a virtual new media exhibition presented by Chicago Artists Coalition in partnership with the Ga***rd and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.

SONIC COLLIDE-O-SCOPE is centered around world-building and manifesting alternative realities through sound and video discourse. The works collide in virtual space like worlds rotating in an ever-changing view, bringing pre-existing power structures into sharp focus and offering up dynamic new social and political paradigms. The artists engage with a number of technical and creative strategies from chanting curses and mantras for protection to integrating personal histories, archival audio, immersive environments, and projected illustrations that envision new futures and parallel worlds.

SONIC COLLIDE-O-SCOPE is curated by the Ga***rd and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation Curatorial Fellow, Courtney Cintrón.

Participating Artists: Hiba Ali, Kim Alpert, Sofía Cordóva, Jacquelyn Carmen Guerrero, AJ McClenon, Bryan LaBeuf, Damon Locks, Norman W. Long, Amina Ross, and Sadie Woods.

Exhibition runs from Thursday, July 28, 2022 - Thursday, January 26, 2023.

RSVP for virtual reception on Thursday, July 28 at 6 PM CDT below.

Chicago Artists Coalition in partnership with the Ga***rd and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation are pleased to present SONIC COLLIDE-O-SCOPE.

20/07/2022

Tonight, we are celebrating The Hoodoisie’s Never Normal Again anthology release.

Wednesday, July 20
Caitlin Gallery
2005 S. Blue Island
Doors 6 PM
Program 7 PM

Repost
Join us to celebrate the hottest hood writers and philosophers of Chicago ane beyond! Make sure to come and imbibe in libations and liberation.